Stories of the Unknown
by IrrisT
Summary: Different stories of the many inhabitants of the Unknown. Every chapter tells another story.
1. Chapter 1

So, here are a few short stories about different characters from "Over the Garden Wall". I hope you like them and PLEASE REVIEW. Writing isn't fun when none of my readers review.

PS. I take requests! Whatever you wanna read, just ask me. I'm in a lot of fandoms, so you can ask me about fanfictions from other fandoms, too. :)

PPS. Follow me on Twitter if you like Irris_T

Chapter 1: "Over the Garden Wall"

It was a regular life for Juliette.  
Every day the same routine.  
She woke up with the sunrise, helped her father at the farm, went to the market in town and went to sleep with sunset.

Juliette loved being with her father. She didn't care if she had to help him at the farm. Even the fact that her only friends were animals didn't matter.  
Her father was the nicest guy she could imagine. Everyone in town liked him.

But since Juliettes' mother had died, he wasn't the same anymore. He was sad and quiet. Juliette often tried to make him happy, make him smile. Bu he never did.

It was like the frown was frozen on his face. And his eyes - wich usually had this bright sparkle - were dark and lost, now.

Juliette was worried about him.  
But how could she help?  
He barely talked to her.

That stupid accident.  
Why did it had to happen?  
Why to her mother?

Juliettes' mother had said she had heard a voice. A voice wich had came from deep into the woods. The woods behind the garden wall of the farm from Juliettes' family.

When Juliette had been younger, she and her parents often went slendering in the woods. Juliette was always scared that her parents might lose track and they all would go lost in the woods. To Juliette all the paths and trees looked the same. She couldn't see how it was possible NOT to go lost.  
But her parents never lost track. They always found their way back.

One night Juliette had seen a fawn and chased it. In the middle of the night she had run into the woods.  
Without her parents.  
When she had tried to find the way back home, she was so scared. It was dark. Darker than it was at home. The tall trees didn't let any light from the stars or moon trough.  
All around her Juliette had heard strange animal noises and the trees' silhouettes had seemed to have faces.  
It had been the worst night of Juliettes' life.  
Yet.

When her mother had became crazy and talked about the voice from the woods, she often left home at night.  
Juliette had watched her. She had seen how her mother went into the woods. A few hours later she always came back.  
When Juliettes' father asked her mother what she had done in the woods, she simply answered "I solved puzzles for the man made of trees."

Juliettes' father had often cried at this time. When Juliette asked, he said her mother was sick.

And one day she had died.

Again Juliettes' mother walked into the woods. But this time she hadn't came back.  
When a group of people searched for her, they only found her dead body. It looked like Juliettes' mother had been running and then fell down a hill into a river. Her head had hit a rock at the bottom of the river and she drowned.

Since this day, Juliettes' father forbid Juliette to go into the woods. The garden wall was the border. And Juliette didn't want to go there. She had hated the woods already before her mother had died. Now it was even worse.

Everytime she came close to the garden wall, a weird feeling flooded her body. A feeling like she started floating and couldn't come back to the ground. Like she would float higher and higher until she reached the sky and would die of missing oxygen.

The darkness between the trees of the woods seemed to call her. Juliette wondered if that was what her mother had called "The Voice".

But Juliette would NEVER cross the border. She would never again go into this creepy forest.

And even if she wanted to: Her father would never allow it.

The days became more boring. The world seemed to get darker.  
With every passing day Juliette got sadder. She was lonely.  
Sure, she still had her father.  
But he almost never talked to her!

"Father!" she screamed at him. "Father, talk to me! Say something!"

No response.

He kept working with the cows, didn't even look at her.  
"Why are you doing this to me?" Juliette asked, her voice shaky. She had a hard time, fighting back the tears.

"I don't mean anything to you anymore. Since mother died you care about me."  
The words felt heavy in her chest. She had thought them so often, but saying them aloud was totally different. It broke her heart. She didn't wanted it to be the truth. She wanted her father to love her!

She needed him.  
He was everything she had.

Slowly he rose his head. Black, sad eyes looked into hers.  
He had changed so much.

Juliette and her father kept looking at each other for a few seconds.  
Then he carefully opened his mouth. He made a croaky sound and choked, a miserable look on his face.  
His mouth got closed again and he went back to work.

Juliette could tell he WANTED to say something. She knew he loved her and still cared about her, but in this condition he wasn't any good to her.  
She needed someone who was there for her, who talked with her.  
Someone who made her happy.

Who showed her that life was worth something.

Every following day seemed to be a bigger struggle than the last one.  
With every single hour Juliettes' life became darker.  
And she became weaker.

She had to do something.

Anything.

On a rainy evening, she couldn't handle it anymore.  
It simply was too much.

She needed time.  
She needed a break from her father, and the work at the farm, and from her whole past!

So Juliette ran away.

She ran out of the house, past the stables, over the fields.  
Rain flew into her eyes, she could barely see.

In the far, she heard her father screaming.  
"Juliette! Juliette, stop! Where are you sunning?"

He sounded hurt and worried.

But Juliette didn't care.  
It was too late.  
Nothing could stop her now.

She ran on, and her father followed. He ran as fast as he could.  
"Juliette, please!" he screamed. "Please, my dear! Where are you going? Please, Juliette, wait! Let us talk!"

Talk?  
NOW he wanted to talk?

"Juliette!"  
His voice broke her heart.  
He sounded so lost. So hurt.  
She wanted to make him feel like that.  
He was her father. She loved him!  
But she couldn't live on like this.

She needed to leave him.  
Not forever. But for a while.

He kept screaming and running.  
Juliette didn't look back.  
She knew if she would, she would change her mind and stay.

So she ran farther. Over fields, past horses and sheep, past the fountain at the end of the farm.

And she kept running.

Running over the garden wall.

Into the dark, deep forest.  
Knowing that she wouldn't find back.

A/N: So I hope you liked the story. I had the idea because of the intro of OtGW, when you see The Woodsmans' daughter looking over the garden wall, into the forest.

In the next chapter I will tell the Story of someone else. Probably the Woodsman. ;) I hope You will that, too. - Irris


	2. Chapter 2

He couldn't believe it.

He just couldn't believe it.

Why did his daughter do this?  
What had he done to anger her so much, that she would run away?

He didn't know.  
He just couldn't understand.

But it didn't matter, now.

All he could do, now, was running after her.

Juliette's always been afraid of the forest, since she got lost when she's been younger.

And now, she ran in exactly this forest.

He wasn't fast enough.

He'd lost her.

After he jumped over the garden wall and into the forest, he'd lost her track.

"Juliette!" he screamed.  
No answer. "Juliette!"  
He kept yelling her name but no one answered.

Not knowing what he could do, he simply kept walking.

Deeper and deeper into the unknown.

He was still walking trough the woods, searching for his beloved daughter Juliette.

How long was he searching already? Days? Weeks?  
He'd lost all sense of time.

But he couldn't stop. He HAD to find her!  
He would never, EVER, stop.

On his way through this weird wood, he had realized, that this wasn't a normal forest.

Strange people and animals lived here. Animals that wore clothes or even could TALK. People who seemed to come from different times.

Everything about this crazy forest gave him the creeps.

And no one seemed to know anything about his daughter.

Where was she now? Was she ok? Or was she... No, he couldn't even think about it.

Just keep walking, he thought. You WILL find her! And you will bring her back home. Where she's safe. My lovely, lovely daughter.

"Good evening, Sir."

A deep, sudden voice scared the father.

He turned around and looked for the source of the voice. But he couldn't see someone.

It was only evening, but already as dark as in the middle of the night.  
This wood, called "The Unknown" by its inhabitants, had a thick layer of mist on it, at every time of the day.  
You never really knew if it was day or night, when you were wandering around.  
Only in clearings, where the sun shone through, you could tell the current time.

"W-Who is there?" the father asked.

"You don't need to be afraid of me." the mysterious voice answered.

Still, the father couldn't see anyone.

"Well... Well,I guess I would feel safer if I knew who I'm talking to."

"I do understand your point, but my name isn't from any importance."

The strange voice seemed to come from every direction, as if the person whom the voice belongs was circling the father.

"Then what do you want from me, Stranger?" the father called out.

"What I want" the voice said, "is easy. I want YOU to leave my forest."

"YOUR forest?" the father asked curious.

"You don't belong here, Sir." the voice continued, ignoring the fathers' question. "Your too old for wandering around here, searching for something you will never be able to find."

The father didn't understand. Something he would never find? Was he talking about Juliette? About his daughter? Did this man knew where his daughter was?

"What are you talking about?" the father asked. "Do you know where my daughter is? Is she still alive?"

"Go home, Sir. There's nothing here for you, in my forest. Only trees and some lost travelers, looking for their way back. YOU aren't lost. You know how to go back home. And that's what you should do now."

"I can't." The father would never give up. Not until his daughter was safe and sound. "I have to find my daughter. I won't go without her."

"GO HOME" the voice repeated. But this time his voice sounded a way deeper than before. You could even say: It sounded inhuman. "YOU WON'T FIND YOUR DAUGHTER. SHE'S PART OF MY FOREST, NOW. SHE BELONGS ME. GO. GO AND NEVER RETURN, TRAVELER."

"AHHHH!" the father screamed. "Where is my daughter!? Who are you!? What did you do to her!?"

But the voice didn't answer. Instead a light got suddenly lit, a few feet away from the father, behind some trees.

Someone was holding a lantern, but the father couldn't see who. He only saw a silhouette. Tall and fast.

And the most weird thing was: The man holding the lantern was singing.

Singing some opera, loudly.  
His voice echoing through the woods.

Days have past, since the weird conversation with the strange voice.

The father had tried to find the person behind the voice, since.  
With no luck.

But he did found out something, about the Unknown.

Some inhabitants of the forest, he talked to, told him mysterious stories about a creature, that is told to drive up to mischief in the Unknown.  
A terrifying monster called The Beast.

"No one has ever seen The Beast" one person told him. "It is said to look like the leafs in the wind."

"Some people also say it looks like a Edelwood tree" another person added.

Edelwood Trees.  
The father has already seen some of those weird trees, here and there.

Horrifying looking small dark brown trees with holes in them, that look like screaming faces.

No one knows how those trees emerge or where they come from.  
People say they just appear, over night.  
One day there's nothing, the next day a new Edelwood tree stand there.

And The Beast is supposed to like one of them?

"If no one has ever seen The Beast, then comes it that people know he looks like leafs or like Edelwood Trees?" the father wondered.

"Well..." one of the persons, the father talked to, said, looking nervous. "There ARE some people, or at least that's what people say, who are special. I don't know why these people are different, but from time to time The Beast comes out and talks to someone."

The people didn't know what The Beast says to the people but the father already knows.  
HE had talked to The Beast.  
He knew it had been The Beast. He could feel it.

Other people he'd met on his way had told him, that you could hear The Beast singing at night.  
Singing operas in a deep, loud voice.

One day the father came across a tavern called "The Dark Lantern".  
The people inside that tavern were even weirder than most of the other inhabitants of the Unknown. They loved singing. All. The. Time.  
The father almost felt like in some musical.  
But the people were nice. Though they didn't seem to like strangers very much. They told him The Beast visits strangers. The Beast seemed to like strangers more than the Unknowns' inhabitants.

When the father entered the tavern, the people were afraid, The Beast might come and destroy the tavern.

But when the father told them his story, they felt sorry for him and gave him food. He told them, that he thinks The Beast has his daughter and that he needs to find The Beast, so he can safe Juliette.

"We can tell you the way to some Edelwood Trees. Wait there and sooner pr later The Beast will come."

That made the father curious.  
"Why? What has The Beast to do with those weird trees?"

"He chops them." the Tavern Keeper replied. "The Beast needs the wood of the Edelwood Trees. Inside their wood is a special oil. The only oil, which keeps the light of The Beasts' lantern lit."

"I saw his lantern" the father remembered. "What's so special about it?"

"I don't know. But The Beast always keeps his lantern with him. He never lets it burn out."

"When I met The Beast, there was no light at the beginning. No lantern. First when he left, I saw the lantern."

"That's because The Beast can manipulate light. He wants no light, there is no light, even though his lantern is in his hands. That's also why some people call his lantern the Dark Lantern. Because it is able to shine without you seeing any light."

The father wondered why the Tavern Keeper called her tavern after The Beasts' Dark Lantern, but didn't wanted to talk anymore.

The people described him the way to some Edelwood Trees and, after the father had eaten, he walked to the said place.

After a long way of traveling, he found a circle of three Edelwood Trees. Sad-looking depressing things.  
In the face-looking holes of the trees the father could see the black oil, dripping down the trees' trunks.

The father sat down on the cold ground, leaned against a tree - a normal tree - and waited.

Waited, for a long, long time.

And finally - after a few days - the voice could be heard.  
Singing the same opera, the father had heard the last time from The Beast.

Quick, the father hid behind a tree, hoping that The Beast hadn't seen him, yet.

And fortunately he hadn't.

The Beast neared the Edelwood Trees, the Dark Lantern in his hand.

The father couldn't believe his eyes.

The Beast... It...it REALLY looked like Edelwood Trees. Except that his skin was bright brown, while Edelwood Trees were dark brown.  
And each Edelwood Tree had only ONE face. The Beasts' body had dozens of faces, all over it.

His face had no real nose, just two tiny holes for breathing and the mouth was a huge round hole.  
His eyes were almost as huge as his mouth and they gleamed blue, yellow, orange with red pupils.  
From The Beasts' head grew two branches, which looked like horns.

The Beast stopped singing and sat his lantern down, on the ground next to him.  
Then he grabbed an axe, which he'd holt in his other hand, with both hands.

"Ahh, what beautiful Edelwood Trees you three have become" The Beast said in his deep voice.

He started chopping the first of the trees and sang again.

The father took his chance - probably his only chance - and grabbed the Dark Lantern.

The Beast turned around and screamed "NOOO! YOU! GIVE ME THE LANTERN!"

"Never!" the father yelled! "First you'll tell me where my daughter is, Beast!"

"YOU FOOL! YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT. GIVE ME THAT LANTERN OR YOU'LL NEVER SEE YOUR DAUGHTER AGAIN!"

Tears ran down the fathers' cheeks.  
"You... You said she's already dead!" he sobbed.

"I NEVER SAID THAT, SIR. I SAID YOU WILL NEVER FIND HER, AND I SPOKE THE TRUTH!"

"You-You will never get your lantern back. I don't know why it's so important for you. But I promise: I will keep that lantern away from you as long as I'm alive, as long as it's possible."

The Beast seemed to think for a second. He just stood there and watched the father. It's body was hidden in shadows again, now that The Beast wasn't in possession of the Dark Lantern anymore.

"Perhaps" The Beast finally said, "we should make a deal."

So, I hope you guys liked the second chapter. Next chapter will tell the story of another charakter. I don't know which one yet, so be surprised! :D

And PLEEEEAAASE, LEAVE REVIEWS!  
No one gave me a review for the first chapter. I don't know if I should write more, when no one shows interest.

I hope to hear from you guys! :) - Irris_


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